Archive for August, 2017
Continuously occupied since early November 2000, the International Space Station (ISS) is being viewed as an archaeological site.
The orbiting complex is eyed by The International Space Station Archaeological Project (ISSAP) as the first large-scale space archaeology project.
Boldly going where no archaeologists have gone before are scholars Justin Walsh of Chapman University in Orange, California and Alice Gorman of Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia.
Microsociety/miniworld
“We are studying the crew of the International Space Station as a microsociety in a miniworld. Our project will have positive effects on the development of long-duration space missions, and it will extend the discipline of archaeology into a new context,” the ISS Archaeology site explains.
The space station serves as evidence for human adaptation to a completely new environment. The ISS undertaking has involved five space agencies, 25 nations, countless private contractors, and several hundred visitors from 18 countries, from scientists, military officers to a few tourists.
Questions to be addressed
Underpinning the project are seeking answers to questions outside the scope of standard histories. These include:
- How do crewmembers interact with each other and with equipment and spaces originating in other cultures?
- How does material culture reflect gender, race, class, and hierarchy on the ISS?
- How do spaces and objects frame interactions of conflict or cooperation?
- How have crewmembers altered the space station to suit their needs or desires?
- What are the effects of microgravity on the development of society and culture?
New understanding
“No other site has the potential to illuminate how material culture shapes human experiences of the space environment across this timescale,” the group’s website explains. “We will offer a new understanding of human activity in space, with applications for the development of future missions. The project will also develop new methods for the discipline of archaeology that will enable future study of other remote, unusual, and/or dangerous contexts.”
Resources
Dig into the ISS Archaeological Project by going to:
Note:
On September 21, Justin Walsh will present the lecture “To Boldly Go Where No Archaeologist Has Gone Before: The Archaeology of a Human Habitation Site in Space.” This open to the public, Archaeological Institute of America/Tampa Bay Society lecture, will be held at the University of South Florida. For more information, go to: https://www.archaeological.org/societies/tampabay
Now in Sol 1787, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is commissioned to do less driving, more science.
That’s the word from Michael Battalio, an atmospheric scientist from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.
Driving issue
At the start of rover operations in the last day, it was discovered that a recent drive faulted prematurely after about 50 feet (15 meters), “which was roughly half the expected distance,” Battalio notes. “The drive halted because one of the middle wheels experienced a large up and down motion as if going over a large rock.”
Due to the short distance since the last contact science and the uncertain nature of the stability of the terrain at Curiosity’s position, Battalio adds that rover arm activities were ruled out due to the possibility of Curiosity shifting during arm motion.
“Thus, a possible touch and go plan was scaled back to only a drive away from the faulted position,” Battalio explains. This opened up a lot of science time, particularly for the Mars environment scientists.
Horizon, cloud movies
The new scripted plan is a late afternoon supra-horizon movie (SHM) and a zenith cloud movie. The SHM is pointed just above the horizon due north so is sun-safe all day, but the zenith movie must be captured late or early in the day to allow for Navcam imaging to be sun safe, as the camera is pointed nearly vertically, Battalio notes.
“Sandwiched between the cloud movies,” Battalio adds, “Navcam will take a 30-minute dust devil movie to try to catch dust devils in motion. In the early morning of Sol 1788, there will be a morning imaging suite with second SHM and zenith movies from Navcam, and Mastcam will take a tau and LOS measurement.”
Tau is the optical depth vertically while LOS (line-of-sight) determines the amount of dust towards the direction of the crater rim.
ChemCam – now marked healthy
Now marked “healthy” is Curiosity’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) after experiencing an anomaly over the weekend plan. But “in an abundance of caution,” Battalio says that geologists will only request one ChemCam observation of “Deadman Ledge,” which is an area of exposed Murray bedrock at the base of Vera Rubin Ridge.
The bulk of science will be performed by Curiosity’s Mastcam that will image “Folly Ledge,” an area of exposed fractures, “Cubby Hole,” an area of sand disturbed by the drive, a mosaic of the “Hupper” target from the Sol 1786 plan, and a documentation image of the ChemCam target.
Lastly, Battalio notes that rover planners also requested a Navcam image part way through the drive to look at what rock might have triggered Curiosity’s drive fault.
How best to robotically tow back to Earth soil and rock samples of Mars is now in vigorous discussion.
The enterprise calls to mind part of the lyrics from a Stevie Wonder classic: “Here I am baby. Oh, you’ve got the future in your hand. Signed, sealed, delivered, I’m yours.”
NASA’s Mars 2020 rover mission is a spacecraft being cast as the first stage in hauling home specimens of the Red Planet.
Seal the deal
To seal the deal, NASA has created a Returned Sample Science Board. A half-day workshop on where this effort now stands took place last month.
For detailed information, go to my new Space.com article:
Mars Sample Return: Scientists Debate How to Bring Red Planet Rocks to Earth
https://www.space.com/37815-nasa-mars-sample-return-plans.html
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now in Sol 1787, driving over last weekend over MSL drove over 105 feet (32 meters) to a sandy area with a few bedrock blocks.
However, the robot’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) has suffered an anomaly, reports Ken Herkenhoff, a planetary geologist and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in Flagstaff, Arizona. Trouble-shooting is underway.
Marked sick
The instrument “was marked sick” after the acquisition of the first Remote Micro Imager (RMI) telescope mosaic of Vera Rubin Ridge, Herkenhoff adds.
“The instrument is in a safe state and turned off, but no other ChemCam observations were successful last weekend. The instrument team will need at least one sol to recover,” so no ChemCam activities were being planned.
Herkenhoff explains that the team concluded that it is not essential to acquire RMI data from the previous or current position, and agreed that they should stick with the touch-and-go rover activities that were strategically planned.
Target list
On the target list for Curiosity is “Emery Cove” for a short Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) integration and a trio of Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photos.
After Curiosity’s robotic arm is stowed, Herkenhoff says that rover’s Right Mastcam will take a picture of a rock named “Hupper” that appears to show cross-bedding and acquire two mosaics of “Shooting Rock” to test techniques for improving the image resolution while the RMI is unavailable.
“The two mosaics will be identical,” Herkenhoff points out, “except for a small pointing offset between them which should allow them to be combined into a ‘super-resolution’ mosaic.”
Dust devil search
Also on tap is use of Curiosity’s Navcam to search for dust devils before a drive, planned to be about 92 feet (28 meters) long. In addition to the usual post-drive imaging, Navcam will take a couple half-frames of the top of Vera Rubin Ridge to enable accurate targeting for an upcoming plan.
Lastly, the robot’s Mastcam will measure the amount of dust in the atmosphere, and the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) will take a standard twilight image before the rover recharges overnight, Herkenhoff concludes.
New road map
A new Curiosity traverse map through Sol 1786 shows the rover’s position as of August 15, 2017.
Numbering of the dots along the line indicate the sol number of each drive. North is up. The scale bar is 1 kilometer (~0.62 mile).
From Sol 1785 to Sol 1786, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 52.02 feet (15.86 meters), bringing the rover’s total odometry for the mission to 10.63 miles (17.10 kilometers).
The base image from the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) in NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The Barringer, or Meteor Crater in Arizona is arguably the world’s best preserved and most dramatic looking impact crater.
Because of its similarity to lunar terrain, NASA used the crater during the Apollo era as a site for testing equipment that would be used on the lunar surface and for training astronaut crews.
Expanded edition
A new free volume — Guidebook to the Geology of Barringer Meteorite Crater, Arizona — is available courtesy of the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI).
They have released a greatly expanded edition of David Kring’s Guidebook to the Geology of Barringer Meteorite Crater, Arizona (a.k.a. Meteor Crater).
The book is being distributed electronically as a complimentary download so that it is available to the entire planetary science community.
100 years of exploration
This volume summarizes over 100 years of exploration at the crater and describes how impact cratering processes excavated the bowl-shaped cavity, distributing over 175 million metric tons of rock on the surrounding landscape.
As a leading authority on the crater, Kring explores both the geologic processes that shaped the crater and the biological effects the impact event may have had on an ice-age community of mammoths and mastodons.
Field training and research program
This excellent guidebook now contains over 150 figures with more than 200 photographs of the crater and samples from the crater. A large portion of the expanded material in the second edition is based on research conducted by students in LPI’s Field Training and Research Program at Meteor Crater.
To download your copy of this important and essential guidebook (164 MB), go to:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/books/barringer_crater_guidebook/